NewsWrap for the week ending March 22, 2003 (As broadcast on This Way Out program #782, distributed 3-24-03) [Written by Cindy Friedman, with thanks to Fenceberry, Graham Underhill, Rex Wockner and Greg Gordon] Anchored by Cindy Friedman and Ralph Radebaugh As Britain joined the U.S. in attacking Iraq this week, the U.K.'s Ministry of Defense announced that for the first time it will be extending spousal survivor benefits to the partners of its unmarried servicemembers who may die there -- including gay and lesbian partners. British law currently restricts military pensions to legally married spouses, something several Members of Parliament have already been working to amend. But the Ministry has the authority to change the benefits regulations without legislation, and the heterosexual domestic partner of one servicemember who died in action had already won a settlement in her high-profile campaign for a military pension. The new eligibility of partners is not identical to that of legally married spouses, according to the Ministry's written statement to the Parliament. While spouses enjoy their benefits automatically, for partners the Ministry will make what it called "a broad assessment of the substance of the relationship" in each case. The assessment will consider such factors as duration, the partner being named in the servicemember's will, financial interdependence, shared commitments such as joint mortgages, and children, although not all of these are necessary to qualify. Those who are deemed to have had a "substantial" relationship with a servicemember who died in a "conflict" will receive an initial lump sum followed by regular payments, but are apt to be in amounts about 10% less than those received by legal spouses. Partner eligibility begins with the war on Iraq and is not retroactive. Meanwhile, all that's available to U.S. gay and lesbian servicemembers in Iraq is the option to name a partner as what's called a "person of interest" to be notified if they die. Even that's risky, as the so-called "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy remains in effect, with so-called "gay discharges" and military cases of homophobic harassment both having reached record highs in 2001, the latest year for which figures are available. The attack on Iraq marks the first time the U.S. military specifically excluded proceedings on "gay discharges" from its "stop-loss" orders, which halted other administrative actions so as to keep troops available for action. Numerous gay and lesbian individuals and organizations have been prominent among those protesting the war in Western nations. In fact, one U.S. Internet poll suggested that lesbigays and transgenders may be more likely than their heterosexual counterparts to oppose it. Last week Britain's best-known gay rights activist Peter Tatchell was arrested after jumping in front of Prime Minister Tony Blair's car to protest Western military intervention against Iraq. Tatchell, who was quickly bailed out, believes Saddam Hussein should be deposed by means of support for dissident Iraqi Kurds. In one protest this week, the Spanish gay rights group Colegas publicly called on the Pope to excommunicate Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar and his entire ruling Partido Popular from the Roman Catholic Church. The Pope has repeatedly called for peace, while the Spanish Government has been a leader in supporting U.S. military action against Iraq. However, the Church and Partido Popular agree in their opposition to legal recognition of gay and lesbian couples, with the PP having recently blocked registered partnership bills introduced by all of Spain's other parliamentary parties. And Mexico City's first ever Lesbian March this week turned into an anti-war demonstration. Lesbian-feminist organizers had previously announced it would "proclaim [their] need for autonomous spaces that do not compromise our ethics in the construction of a society that is critical of heterosexism, neoliberalism and other fundamentalisms". But as some 500 participants marched down the city's main streets, they joined their voices with dozens of anti-war protesters holding vigil outside the U.S. Embassy. Meanwhile, the lawsuit credited for the South African National Defense Force's recent extension of spousal benefits to servicemembers' same-gender partners was reaffirmed by the nation's highest court this week. South Africa's Constitutional Court last year determined that a law restricting judges' survivor benefits to legally married spouses violated the constitutional guarantee of equality for gays and lesbians. The decision was seen as a landmark for partner rights, especially for civil servants, and led to the change in military policy. But by the time that judgment was handed down, the law in question had been replaced by another which also recognized only marital partners. So openly lesbian High Court Judge Kathy Satchwell went back to court seeking benefits for her partner, and this week the Constitutional Court again declared that permanent life partners must have equal treatment. Satchwell's attorney Raymond Tucker interprets the ruling as referring to relationships of some length or some kind of mutual support agreement, noting that, "With marriage there is an automatic mutual support assumption that does not occur in gay relationships because they might have chosen to exclude that obligation." Despite a number of court rulings and urging from judges, South Africa's legislature has yet to act on formalizing legal recognition of same-gender couples. But a number of U.S. state legislatures continue to take up bills affecting gays and lesbians. New Mexico's legislature took final action this week on two bills, sending them on to Governor Bill Richardson, who has promised to sign them into law. One will prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in employment, housing, public accommodations, and credit. This week the state Senate, which had previously passed its own version of the measure by a narrow margin, passed the House version by a vote of 22-to-20. The other bill would increase sentences for bias-motivated crimes, including those against lesbigays and transgenders. This week the Senate version won approval from 60% of the state House, which had previously passed its own version. Also, late last week the Democrat-controlled New Mexico House revived a bill to require insurers to make coverage available for domestic partners in group health insurance plans to those employers who want to provide it. The bill, which the Governor supports, had previously failed in a tie vote on a day of poor attendance, now passed the House 33-to-30. The Washington state House -- also controlled by Democrats -- this week gave almost 60% approval to a bill to prohibit sexual orientation discrimination in employment, housing and financial transactions. Although the Washington House has passed similar bills twice before, it will once again face an uphill battle in the Republican-controlled state Senate. In Minnesota -- which was among the first of the 13 U.S. states to enact a law protecting gay and lesbian civil rights -- a controversial move to repeal those protections may be dead for the session, as its Senate sponsor withdrew it this week. Republican leaders in the state House have already said they won't give a hearing to its companion bill there. Maryland's state House this week passed by a landslide 2-to-1 margin a bill to add homophobic attacks to the state's hate crimes law. Its sponsor, openly gay Delegate Richard Madaleno, is confident that the Maryland Senate will follow suit. A Member of the Finnish Parliament issued an open letter of apology this week after lesbian-baiting his nation's President. Former professional boxer Tony Halme won the second-largest number of votes of any candidate in this week's elections, even though his right-wing populist party, the True Finns, lost 15 of its 18 seats. When an interviewer on public radio asked him if he might form his own parliamentary group, Halme said, "We have a lesbian as president and me as parliamentarian -- everything seems possible." While it's true that President Tarja Halonen once chaired Finland's national gay and lesbian rights group SETA, it's not true that she's a lesbian, and she's now married to her former domestic partner, a male. In addition to Halme's published apology, the radio broadcaster is investigating its airing of his remarks, and has attributed it to a failure in internal routines. And finally... the annual protest of the exclusion of gay and lesbian groups from New York City's massive St. Patrick's Day parade has become almost as much of a tradition as the venerable parade itself. Parade organizers the Ancient Order of Hibernians have the law on their side, thanks to a past unanimous U.S. Supreme Court ruling regarding the exclusion of gays and lesbians from Boston's St. Patrick's Day parade. In its heyday, the New York protest resulted in more than 200 arrests, but this year's demonstration by the group Irish Queers involved only a dozen participants. Despite an unu sual prop and four arrests, it went all but unreported by media, at a time of widespread U.S. police crackdowns on traffic-blocking actions towards security from terrorism. At a major intersection on the parade route, the Irish Queers erected a 16-foot-tall tripod and slung one of their members from its peak. Police knocked over the tripod, dumping its occupant, and arrested him and three other demonstrators. They were released from custody more than 30 hours later, with the group charging violence and other misconduct by police. Back on the Auld Sod in Belfast, the tenth annual protest of the New York City exclusion by the Northern Ireland Gay Rights Association may have actually had more journalistic attention, despite being utterly peaceful and prop-free. That group picketed outside an office of New York parade sponsor Aer Lingus, where NIGRA president PA MagLochlainn told reporters, "Gay women and men can take part in St. Patrick's Day Parades in Dublin, Cork and Belfast -- but they cannot in New York. The parade in New York has been multi-ethnic for years, but the Ancient Order of Hibernians in America bans gay people from the parade. This bigoted ban is long since out of date."